Vid`s bypass goes directly into a very ecologically sensitive area known as the short hills.

I figured since this province doesn't seem to have a problem with building highways through ecologically sensitive areas, that wouldn't be a problem. I did make an effort to keep it as close to the built up area as possible.

The QEW has enough right of way west of Highway 406 to accommodate 10 lanes without excessive property acquisitions. Many of the existing overpasses between the Red Hill Valley Parkway and Highway 406 are long enough to have a 8-lane QEW pass underneath.

The short term solution is to widen the QEW to 8 lanes in this area and eventually make it a 8 lane +2 HOV lane (so 10 lanes total) artery later on. Highway 420 could also be extended westward to hook up with Highway 406.

I question the need for the Mid-Peninsula Highway at the present time. Perhaps the province should still acquire this land but use it for dedicated high speed rail instead.

The QEW has enough right of way west of Highway 406 to accommodate 10 lanes without excessive property acquisitions. Many of the existing overpasses between the Red Hill Valley Parkway and Highway 406 are long enough to have a 8-lane QEW pass underneath.

The short term solution is to widen the QEW to 8 lanes in this area and eventually make it a 8 lane +2 HOV lane (so 10 lanes total) artery later on. Highway 420 could also be extended westward to hook up with Highway 406.

I question the need for the Mid-Peninsula Highway at the present time. Perhaps the province should still acquire this land but use it for dedicated high speed rail instead.

I think if the province were going to support high-speed rail, they'd do the Windsor-Quebec City corridor first. However, I think two rail lines would be viable. One starting in Windsor, and another starting in Niagara and working its way around Lake Ontario via Hamilton.

I think if the province were going to support high-speed rail, they'd do the Windsor-Quebec City corridor first. However, I think two rail lines would be viable. One starting in Windsor, and another starting in Niagara and working its way around Lake Ontario via Hamilton.

I agree. I'm just saying they should use the land for the Mid-Pen highway for HSR. That way you can get from Toronto to Buffalo quickly, and if the route is extended in the US, it could go all the way to NYC and beyond.

I agree. I'm just saying they should use the land for the Mid-Pen highway for HSR. That way you can get from Toronto to Buffalo quickly, and if the route is extended in the US, it could go all the way to NYC and beyond.

That seems reasonable. All your plans I agree with.

I think 10 lanes through the region is what is needed in the long term (6-8 lanes now), and that is through a 10-lane (8+2) QEW west of the 406, and a 6-lane (4+2?) QEW combined with a 4-lane 420/6-lane 406 corridor through St. Catharines and eastward.

The only new cross-Peninsular highway I can see being viable is a twinned/widened Highway 3 and that would be only when traffic counts there warrant.

I wonder if he will maintain his "highways create jobs" attitude when we tell him how "badly" Northern Ontario needs a freeway across it.

It would be a lot more valuable than good chunks of the Mid-Peninsula Highway in my opinion, just much more expensive (my estimate is about $20 billion in 2011 dollars). A trans-Northern freeway opens a new corridor that does not exist today in most sections.

East of the 406 is needed, west of the 406 is not (a widened QEW would make much more sense).

Ontario’s Opposition leader remains committed to a new highway running through Niagara Region from Fort Erie to at least the Hamilton airport.

Tim Hudak argues the controversial proposal — all but killed by the former Dalton McGuinty government in favour of an expansion of the existing road network — is a critical part of rebuilding the province’s manufacturing base.

“We need this road if we want to bring jobs back to Hamilton and Niagara,” he said in an interview Wednesday after a tour of ArcelorMittal Dofasco’s Hamilton plant. “If we want to send Ontario manufactured goods into the United States, we have to be sure we have the highway infrastructure to be able to do that.”

Hudak’s appearance at the Burlington Street plant was designed as a chance to reiterate his calls for new policies including improvements to the apprenticeship system to train more workers for $85,000-a-year skilled-trades jobs; lower taxes; balanced public finances; lower electricity costs and new labour laws designed to hobble unions.

“My Ontario is always going to build things … but, unfortunately, the manufacturing advantage we’ve had … has been beaten down by government policies…,” he said.

“I believe Ontario’s comeback in manufacturing is about to start, but for that to happen, we have to change the team that leads this province.”

Hudak said Ontario has lost 300,000 manufacturing jobs in the last 10 years, positions that will be hard to replace in a competitive world economy.

“Steel is a competitive industry and I want to ensure that the next time they (managers of ArcelorMittal Dofasco) go to headquarters looking for a new investment, I want them to be able to say the Ontario government is on their side and not working against them so we can get those jobs and investment here,” he said.

You can't even take a train across the border to Detroit and link up with their train system. The VIA line is separate from the CN (or CP?) line that actually has a tunnelled crossing under the Detroit river.

So we can move goods over, but not people. I never understood why it's been like this for so long and I'd like to see the train system better linked in the region between the 2 countries.

How would building a mid-pen highway bring manufacturing back?!?? Seriously.. where are the supporting economic theories or models??? Hudak needs to STFU about this stuff if he wants to seriously put up a fight for the next election instead of catering to his hometown of Fort Erie.

The QEW Hamilton - Niagara isn't even at capacity most of the time, especially now that it just got widened through St. Catharines.